01/22/06: AK Press hosts Book Burning Comedy!
Our partners-in-audio-crime, AK Press, will be hosting its first ever Book Burning Comedy showcase on Friday February 3rd featuring, Will Franken, John Hoogasian, Phillip Watson, Samantha Chanse and hosted by Rusty Mahakian.

Will Franken was ranked as one of the Bay Guardian and SF Weekly's best comedians of 2005 and the New York Times says "What elevates Mr. Franken above your garden-variety comedian is an erudite wit and a highly developed sense of the absurd" This will be Will's first East Bay show after is Comedy Central Mainstage performance on January 30th. This is a unique opportunity to see a truly innovative performer for just $5.

John Hoogasian has performed alongside Louis CK, Lewis Black, Sarah Silverman, Dave Attell and Mitch Hedberg. There is no father to his style. Also performing are Phillip Watson, Samantha Chanse and hosted by Rusty Mahakian

This show was created in the spirit of "The Comedians of Comedy" in the hopes of getting people out to see comedy for under 10 dollars. The show is all-ages, wheelchair accessible and only 5 dollars with a full warehouse of books to browse and buy. February 3rd, Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. AK Press is located between San Pablo and MLK at 674-A 23rd Street in Oakland, CA 94612, If you have any questions call AK press at 510-208-1700.

01/07/06: Pansy Division Rules MySpace- Again!
That's right, Pansy Division has moved their my space page in order to put up songs and other band goodies, so if you're logged onto their original myspace page you'd better become friends with their new site since the old site's going to be ended soon.

It's all part of Pansy Division and Alternative Tentacles getting psyched up for the great new Greatest Hits cd+dvd "The Essential Pansy Division"- coming out on Alternative Tentacles momentarily!

01/05/06: This Is Radio BAT on Digital- Alright!
Alternative Tentacles is pleased as punch to announce our first Podcast- or as we call it around here- our first BAT CAST!!!

That's right, surf the byte fantastic with the Department of Homeland Insecurity every week or two or three as we rock and roll our way through something new, something old, something edgy, something bold. The first one is available for download on the front page of our site here as a 23MB podcast or you can subscribe via our RSS feed. You can play the 31 minute podcast on a computer or an iPod/MP3 player (check with your MP3 player's manufacturer for details about how to listen).

12/28/05: 924 Gilman showing at 924 Gilman!
On New Year's Eve afternoon, 924 Gilman will host a free screening of the improved, fully functional version of "924 Gilman" the documentary that was shown @ Gilman last year by Scarred For Life and Jack & Tom.

There's a show later that evening, so the film will start and end on time in order for bands to load in.

It's also the 19th anniversary of 924 Gilman being open! Come on down!

11/25/05: Today is Buy Nothing Day!
Today is Buy Nothing Day around the world, and while we're always happy for your orders we're also happy to take them tomorrow if you want to celebrate "Buy Nothing Day" today! As of this news update, the adbusters site is down, but it ought to be up by the time you read this article from E-Zine!

"Buy Nothing Day: November 25, 2005
On the Day After Thanksgiving Kohls, KMart, Caribou Coffee and other American retailers will open their doors at 5AM for the holiest of all shopping days in America.

There are more circulars and advertising inserts incenting purchases for this specific day than any other day of the year, according to Media Week. Countering these massive energies is the grassroots declaration of Buy Nothing Day, a resistance fortified by AdBusters.

What is this all about? AdBusters' Brian Highley explains, "We ask people to go 24 hours without buying anything. Some find that they can't and we encourage them to ask themselves, 'Why not?'"

Buy Nothing Day will be celebrated in a record 65 countries this year. Fueled in part by a growing anti-American sentiment, more folks in more countries will be hanging posters and discussing global consumerism. AdBusters.org has downloadable posters and paraphernalia to spread the word of Buy Nothing Day."

11/18/05: Please donate to Michelle Cable's medical fund!
We're all extremely sad to hear the news of the tragic van accident that befell DMBQ, injuring the band, tour manager/booker/zinester Michelle Cable, and taking the life of drummer Mana "China" Nishiura. The accident happened as they were on their way to their Brooklyn show.

On Friday November 4th, 2005, in the afternoon, the Japanese based band DMBQ and Michelle Cable of Panache Magazine were involved in a horrible car accident while driving to Brooklyn to play a show that night. Mana "China" Nishiura, DMBQ & Shonen Knife's drummer, did not survive the accident. She was a great talent and will be missed dearly.

Michelle Cable of Panache Magazine and Booking, who had been managing DMBQ's tour, was in the front passenger seat speaking with one of her booking clients, Alternative Tentacles XXX-rapper Blowfly . She had to undergo emergency surgery on her head and is expecting a 6 month recovery period. The rest of the band remains hospitalized but are expected to be released soon. We mourn the loss of China and our hearts go out to DMBQ, Michelle, and their families.

With the help of Jen (Shellshag/Starcleaner), a paypal account has been set up to benefit our friends in DMBQ and Michelle Cable to help pay for medical expenses.

Please forward and post this information as much as you can. Donations can be made to DMBQ and Michelle Cable by using PayPal to donate to the e-mail address dmbqpanache@lovepumpunited.com or by sending checks to:

Lovepump United, PO BOX 3241, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603, USA

11/10/05: Brujeria Bloodies Bay Area!
Masked Madmen BRUJERIA are going to be leveling San Jose this Saturday night as part of the "Defectivos Del Rock" show @ the Santa Clara Fairgrounds- more info on our tour page!

Wilma - one sneaky bitch
"Tom Bowker!" Jeff Clayton - lead growler from the Antiseen - bellowed over the phone at me this afternoon, "When are you gonna wise up and move from that damn target you call home?"
It's a valid question, but the insane living expenses and tropical weather aside, Miami is a nice place in January when the rest of you are freezing your asses off. That is unless you"re like me - in the dark on a dying laptop battery on the 4th day of a blackout thanks to that bitch, Hurricane Wilma.
Wilma was sneaky. Much like Hitler before the blitzkrieg, she beat up defenseless countries in the other direction before launching an all out attack. Like Western Europe in 1939, we Miamians were lulled into thinking it couldn't happen to us. I mean after all, Wilma was hundreds of miles to the west, traveling west. Sure the doom and gloom weathermen were chanting "jet stream" and "sharp turn to the "northeast" like a Hari Krishna in a bead factory - but we'd been through dozens of near misses - and they were actually traveling towards us when we were putting up shutters and buying batteries and water jugs like a battalion of stepford wives.
So on Saturday afternoon, two days before Wilma ripped us - I was at an outlet mall shopping for clothes. We were due at a wedding the next day and my wife needed shoes - storm be damned! We spent the whole day there, and Wilma was barely drifting north - not unlike an unwashed hitchhiker in Humboldt county.
Come Sunday morning, the ugly truth began to reveal itself. Wilma had hit the jet stream and she was traveling towards us really fast. "Like a rocket" as AOL put it when I signed in. And then my parents emailed me from their cruise ship in the mid Atlantic with directions to their hidden car keys and instructions to shutter and sandbag their waterfront home. So I called up Chris, our guitarist and together, we put up the old school aluminum shutters and fumbled with the new fangled accordion shutters that my folks had recently purchased. Like most things that are allegedly idiot-proof, these shutters were impossible to figure. The top railing worked fine - but the bottom tracks had brackets that made it impossible to run the shutters through - so we left it unsecured on the bottom and my wife, baby and I bunked there for the night.
At 6AM, I awoke to the sound of a gabber concert in the master bedroom. The bottom of the accordion shutters was smacking into the glass French doors BOOM BOOM BOOM!! Unnerved, I turned on the TV. Wilma, who was supposed to just give the eastern side of Florida a category 1 brush - was a category fucking three and headed straight for Miami. Then the power went out and I was left with no other noise but BOOM BOOM BOOM! I found the radio and twirled the dial to the local elevator-music station -where the music was off and unhinged calls to the board op were on. Highlights included: "My house is shaking and I just moved here from California!" and "Whoa dude, I just went outside and the sky is on fire!"
At that point, one of the aluminum shutters flew off and I got to see Wilma for myself. Wind was swirling around the house in 125 mph gusts. My dad's creaky old sailboat was three feet above the dock and crashing rapid-fire into the pilings. Piles of broken flowerpots, tree limbs and flotsam and jetsam from the bay sat on the ground, menacingly -as if they were going to take flight and smash through the uncovered window at any moment. Stinking from the evening's shutter work, I headed for the shower and found no water pressure. When Wilma finally let up, I found out why. A thirty foot fichus tree in the side yard took out the garden hose and the spigot, thus creating a three foot waterfall. Unable to find a water main, I called my cousin Jimmy who once had plumbers butt for a living. "Go outside, and find the meter and call me back." He drawled. I stumbled outside and found a city of Miami fireman - who ghetto rigged a screwdriver and a crescent wrench into a water key. With a thousand dollar water bill staved off, I took a can of soup out to the grill. Or at least that's what my dumb ass was doing until I tripped over a branch and fell down the patio stairs, twisting my knee and scraping up everything. Don't eat Campbell's, kids - it's not good for your health.
As I haven't seen a TV all week, you know what Brickell Drive looks like when the ocean visits better than I do. But I've driven by dozens of soviet-long gas lines, attempted to get ice in a dozen stores - before finding one bag sitting by its lonesome in a grocery line, and watched my neighbors skirmish over a generator. I've met a few thanks to the inability to isolate myself with TV and internet and air conditioning. Of course, the fuckers two blocks away have power - because they live in a business district. But that's ok, I'm sure they'll find squatters in their houses when they go to get in the gas lines. And as a bonus -we got booked next Friday, Noember 4th on South Beach. There's even a dinner package. $15 buys you Blowfly and five Latin rock bands. $40 buys you Blowfly and Filet Mignon. Blowfly and dinner. Praise the Lord and pass the ammo - I've finally repeated the puppet show scene of This Is Spinal Tap!
Yours, "Uncle" Tom Bowker, Blowfly

10/25/05: Punk Voter Lives!
PUNK VOTER LIVES! There's lots of action over at punkvoter.com so be sure to check the site for more updates and anti-Bush news. Yeah, it's basically us talking a buncha shit about the President, but somebody's gotta do it. Join us:http://www.punkvoter.com

NEW PUNK VOTER COMP! Once again Punk Voter has teamed up with Fat Wreck Chords to compile a bunch of great punk bands for a great cause. The new CD is called "PROTECT: A Benefit For The National Association To Protect Children". It's 26 total songs and it has unreleased songs from Matt Skiba, Anti-Flag, Jawbreaker, Joey Cape, Against Me!, and a bunch more. Buy it here!

10/09/05: BAT FEST 2005!
BAT FEST 2005 is happening on Halloween night in San Francisco! It's at the Great American Music Hall at 859 O'Farrell Street, doors 7:30, show 8pm. Almost all ages (no babes in arms), $16.

We'll have a ton of Alternative Tentacles shirts, posters, bits, and of course cd and vinyl from all of the bands on the bill! Tickets are available via fax or the box office from the Great American Music HallGreat American Music Hall or on-line at virtuous.com.
(You can also buy combo dinner/show tickets through the Great American Music Hall)

The Administration is running scared as the counter-recruitment and opt-out movement grows across the spectrum of US society. (Part of the Bush's "No Child Left Behind" Act mandated that school children's information be given to military recruiters unless the parents opt out) Help tell the government that we will not be shipped overseas to fight a war started by lies and which has been mismanaged since before the first bomb dropped!

09/30/05: Jello and AT Yard Sale Saturday!!!
It's that time again, Alternative Tentacles and our neighbors Astropitch are having another garage sale here Emeryville, CA! Saturday October 1st, 10am-3pm, at 1501 Powell Street (under the overpass). Both labels will have music, merch, and various non-music bits like computer parts, office supplies, books, and so much more.
Jello Biafra has supplied a ton of new and used cds, lps, and 7"s from his legendary collection, and Jesse The Mail Male bringing a bunch of used and new lps, cds, and 7"s, plus shirts, books, and bits from my own collections. There'll be a bunch of band stuff from Blatz up through The Frisk and Zafio Records releases (including the best East Bay band of the mid-90s, Black Fork!!!). He'll have some campaign shirts too.
Astropitch, which is the other main participant (and the usual instigator) is the home of a lot of the Anticon family and the Residents and Vaccination Records, among a ton of other things. Last yard sale Little Type (Pat and Erika, Lookout refugees and current Adeline/Aaron Elliot/Ben Weasel/Larry Livermore mailorder masters) showed up also. Not sure if they're making it down this time or not.
So yeah, should be good. There's going to be a bunch of Alternative Tentacles cds/tapes/lps/shirts/bits, plus some office things and... uh... stuff.
See you there, if you're local! Carve out a few minutes from your East Bay Saturday and come on by- we're a much better option than frickin' Ikea with more parking and less annoying people (I think).
Saturday October 1st, 10am-3pm, at 1501 Powell Street (under the overpass down the block from the Emeryville Amtrak Station, Emeryville, CA.
*** Please feel free to re-post! ***

09/28/05: In Other Tentacles News...

After centuries of lore from salty, seafaring folk, scientists from Japan had the first ever face-to-face encounter with a giant squid in the Pacific Ocean. Read the full story and see the amazing photos of the 59-foot creature in action here.